State officials outline $1 billion capital gap in outgoing governor's transportation proposal

Megan Cotton, the governor's senior policy adviser for transportation, and Eric Hansen, senior budget adviser for transportation, briefed the House Transportation Committee on Jan. 15 on Governor Jay Inslee's proposed transportation budgets and the fiscal constraints they faced.

The presentation said the Inslee proposal is a maintenance‑level budget with no new revenues and that the department faces an estimated $1,000,000,000 gap between available capital funding and the project list the legislature adopted. "There is a $1,000,000,000 gap in the capital improvement program," Cotton told the committee. Eric Hansen detailed how revenue forecasts declined over 2024: "between February [and] November of '24, the transportation revenue forecast dropped by over $500,000,000" and projected a $2.2…